Library Science Professor Honored with Teaching Award

Renate Chancellor

Renate Chancellor, assistant professor in the Department of Library and Information Science at The Catholic University of America, will be presented with the Award for Teaching Excellence from the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) during the association’s annual meeting Jan. 21 to 24 in Philadelphia.

ALISE is a non-profit organization that serves as the professional organization of university faculty in graduate programs in library and information science in North America.

Awardees are selected for sustained excellence in teaching library and information science; contributions to curriculum design which demonstrate subject expertise and the ability to integrate new developments in library and information science; mentoring students, alumni, and/or practicing professionals outside the classroom; and the use of effective and innovative teaching methods.

“The Department of Library and Information Science, the School of Arts and Sciences, and CUA are very proud of this national recognition for Professor Chancellor from the major professional organization for library and information science education,” says L.R. Poos, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences.

Chancellor has been at Catholic University since 2009. She was a clinical assistant professor of library and information science until 2013, when she was named an assistant professor. She is the director of the department's law librarianship program. One of her research focuses is the information-seeking behavior of lawyers. She has written about the relationship between the development of the librarian’s profession and the Catholic Church, and about the profession of librarianship within African-American history and the history of the civil rights movement.

At CUA, she has taught courses on Libraries and Information in Society, Information Sources and Services, Legal Literature, Advanced Legal Research, and Oral History.

She was previously honored in 2012 with the ALISE/Norman Horrocks Leadership Award, which is given to a new ALISE member who has demonstrated outstanding leadership qualities in professional ALISE activities.